For a $2,999 price point, you might wonder — is the Microsoft Surface Studio desktop really worth it? I tested one recently and found myself being drawn to a few important features that made it worth the high price even compared to similar models from Dell and even Apple.

1. Microsoft Surface Studio’s incredibly high resolution

The high resolution of Microsoft Surface Studio was one of the surprises for me because I sometimes don’t like extremely high-resolution displays. They might be clear, but the color quality sometimes suffers. And in some cases, the extra resolution doesn’t really help with detail work in Photoshop and other apps because you don’t really notice the difference.

For a $2,999 price point, you might wonder — is the Microsoft Surface Studio desktop really worth it? I tested one recently and found myself being drawn to a few important features that made it worth the high price even compared to similar models from Dell and even Apple.

1. Incredibly high resolution

This was one of the surprises for me, because I sometimes don’t like extremely high-res displays. They might be clear, but the color quality sometimes suffers. And, in some cases, the extra resolution doesn’t really help with detail work in Photoshop and other apps because you don’t really notice the difference. The Studio uses a resolution of 4500 x 3000 pixels, and believe me, you notice. For photos, I was able to zoom in and make fine adjustments to pixels in ways I couldn’t do on any laptop or on my normal 2K resolution display. Even normal Word documents looked better on the Studio’s display without any jagged text.

When Gartner ranks a data breach as a 10 on a scale of 1-10, you know there is cause for alarm. A recent compromise at Equifax, a consumer credit reporting agency, resulted in 143 million records being stolen. Of those, at least 209,000 involved ste…

The term “improperly configured” is a real plague on the IT landscape.

It can refer to a firewall protecting an enterprise; it can create problems on a web server. For one newly minted smartphone company, it can also look pretty embarrassing.

Essential phone recently sent out an email to customers asking for proof of identity. This request was a little odd in the first place–who does that anymore? The email basically asked customers to send a picture of a photo identification or passport by email. From a security standpoint, that’s a bit like asking people to text your credit card number to a hacker.

The term “improperly configured” is a real plague on the IT landscape.

It can refer to a firewall protecting an enterprise; it can create problems on a web server. For one newly minted smartphone company, it can also look pretty embarrassing.

Essential phone recently sent an email to customers asking for proof of identity. This request was a little odd in the first place — who does that anymore? The email basically asked customers to send a picture of a photo identification or passport by email. From a security standpoint, that’s a bit like asking people to text your credit card number to a hacker.

For most of us, the Amazon Alexa bot became a way of life over the last year. I use the Echo speaker on my desk. I have a Dot speaker in two bedrooms of my house. I’ve used Alexa on my phone many times, and I’ve tested it on pre-production cars. It’s connected into my home security system. It can read books from Audible.com, and it tells pretty good jokes (at least they are better than some jokes by humans).

With a price tag that will likely be a dollar short of $1,000, the iPhone 8 will use a screen technology called OLED — currently used by Samsung and others but a first for Apple. It will look brighter and clearer, and it may stretch almost to the edge of the enclosure.

The problem? It had better make waffles. And talk to the dead. Or offer a warm towel in the morning.

Using a “modular” design, the idea is to add pieces like a 360-degree camera or maybe some sort of connected home gadget to the smartphone, which runs a stock version of Android. It also uses a slick black enclosure, something that might make you think of a recent Blackberry model. And the screen runs all the way to the edge. Hmm.

Here’s my problem with it. While the modular design seems novel (Motorola does the same thing) and I’m impressed that any company would even try to go up against Apple and Samsung, there’s already some signs that this will be an uphill climb.

Using a “modular” design, the idea is to add pieces like a 360-degree camera or maybe some sort of connected home gadget to the smartphone, which runs a stock version of Android. It also uses a slick black enclosure, something that might make you think of a recent Blackberry model. And, the screen runs all the way to the edge. Hmm.

Here’s my problem with it. While the modular design seems novel (Motorola does the same thing) and I’m impressed that any company would even try to go up against Apple and Samsung, there’s already some signs that this will be an uphill climb.

Slight changes in how our favorite gadgets work can be quite infuriating. And, it’s even more infuriating when you realize the change occurred quite a few years ago.

That’s the case with a simple feature on the iPhone. Back in the day, a call would come in and you could simply select the “decline” option. It works that way on many Android phones. These days, on my iPhone 7 Plus, a call might come when the phone is locked but I have to wait for it to stop ringing. I finally figured out that I can press the lock button once to turn off the ringer and vibration, but the call keeps on ringing. During that time, I can’t use the phone to text or browse the web.

Slight changes in how our favorite gadgets work can be quite infuriating. It’s even more infuriating when you realize the change occurred quite a few years ago.

That’s the case with a simple feature on the iPhone. Back in the day, a call would come in, and you could simply select the “decline” option. It works that way on many Android phones. These days, on my iPhone 7 Plus, a call might come when the phone is locked, but I have to wait for it to stop ringing. I finally figured out that I can press the lock button once to turn off the ringer and vibration, but the call keeps on ringing. During that time, I can’t use the phone to text or browse the web.

AR has a better chance than VR in making a big splash in the enterprise. For starters, who wants to place VR goggles over your head during a conference call or meeting with the marketing team? It tends to isolate you, not to mention making you look like a cyborg. And, it’s mostly a consumer endeavor.

In 1985, I was in college trying to focus on my journalism classes and avoiding any responsibility for any future work endeavors.

I’d often sneak into the computer lab in the afternoon and hammer away on a clunky IBM keyboard. I wrote an entire science fiction novel at the time. I hacked into the computer lab back end, the system that locked computers after hours. In these early days of computing, it was all DOS all of the time. You had no other options.

Then, one glorious sunny day that fall, two new computers arrived that looked and acted differently from the rest. They were outliers. The screen flashed an awkward Windows logo at first, the mouse moved a pointer with instant precision, and there was an app called Microsoft Paint that seemed to live on a wholly different periphery of existence. You could paint anything. You could draw anything. It was remarkable. If the hand of God had reached down through the dust-stained windows in what was an old Catholic monastery converted into a college and revealed the infinite epoch of time immortal, it would have been a distraction (and perhaps a little weird). I was in love. MS Paint was here and nothing would ever be the same again.

In 1985, I was in college trying to focus on my journalism classes and avoiding any responsibility for any future work endeavors.

I’d often sneak into the computer lab in the afternoon and hammer away on a clunky IBM keyboard. I wrote an entire science fiction novel at the time. I hacked into the computer lab back end, the system that locked computers after hours. In these early days of computing, it was all DOS all of the time. You had no other options.

Then, one glorious sunny day that fall, two new computers arrived that looked and acted differently from the rest. They were outliers. The screen flashed an awkward Windows logo at first, the mouse moved a pointer with instant precision, and there was an app called Microsoft Paint that seemed to live on a wholly different periphery of existence. You could paint anything. You could draw anything. It was remarkable. If the hand of God had reached down through the dust-stained windows in what was an old Catholic monastery converted into a college and revealed the infinite epoch of time immortal, it would have been a distraction (and perhaps a little weird). I was in love. MS Paint was here and nothing would ever be the same again.

I strapped on a pair of virtual reality (VR) goggles and looked around the room. There were three PageWide printers sitting off in the corner, so I reached out and pressed a lever to open the paper tray. A voice off in the distance, like a ghost in the fog, told me to try lifting the copier lid as well.

I was at HP in Palo Alto, California, and the demo was meant to show me how their multi-function printers work. Interestingly, VR and augmented reality (AR) today do not take advantage of artificial intelligence (AI) as much as you might think. I wasn’t able to ask a question and have a bot respond. The VR looked ultra-realistic, but it was all self-contained within a structured environment. The demo was more like a 3D-rendered slideshow with some interactions. But in the future, AI will play a much bigger role.

I strapped on a pair of VR goggles and looked around the room. There were three PageWide printers sitting off in the corner, so I reached out and pressed a lever to open the paper tray. A voice off in the distance, like a ghost in the fog, told me to try lifting the copier lid as well.

I was at HP in Palo Alto, and the demo was meant to show me how their multi-function printers work. Interestingly, VR and AR today do not take advantage of AI as much as you might think. I wasn’t able to ask a question and have a bot respond. The VR looked ultra-realistic, but it was all self-contained within a structured environment. The demo was more like a 3D-rendered slideshow with some interactions, but in the future, AI will play a much bigger role.

It’s time to hit the reset button on the gas engine. As you may already know, the electric car is now much more viable than it was ten years ago — there are charging stations in every major city scattered everywhere, particularly at hotels and along major highways. One glance at just the Tesla supercharger network of 900 stations proves that point.

Yet, to reach the point where more than half of all new cars are fully electric by 2027 — as Elon Musk predicted recently — there needs to be a massive undertaking that only the enterprise can understand. It is not a consumer endeavor but one that must be backed by IT, similar to an ERP roll-out or a massive Windows deployment.

You don’t notice it is even working. The car swerves slightly to avoid moving out of a lane, and you keep listening to Nirvana classics. Your email app blocks annoying messages that are not technically spam but sent by people who have no right invading your inbox. At home, your garage doors close silently at 10pm on the dime. You keep watching a baseball game and eating a burger.

You don’t notice it is even working. The car swerves slightly to avoid moving out of a lane and you keep listening to Nirvana classics. Your email app blocks annoying messages that are not technically spam but sent by people who have no right invading your inbox. At home, your garage doors close silently at 10PM on the dime. You keep watching a baseball game and eating a burger.

10 years after the iPhone debuted, on June 28 of 2007, the smartphone that started it all is still going strong. From the latest sales figures I’ve seen, the phone has sold well over 1 billion units worldwide. Statista claims there are 2.2 million apps in the app store.

My own fascination with the “Jesus phone” (as it was called) started on launch day. I was one of those people who happened to obtain one from Apple on the day of release, then wrote about it that same week. I remember what things were like back then. The Palm Pre was still around; Nokia still dominated. Most models by companies like Samsung and BlackBerry were still big and bulky, running a proprietary interface. (The T-Mobile G1 running Android didn’t come out until 2009.)

Ten years after the iPhone debuted, on June 28 of 2007, the smartphone that started it all is still going strong. From the latest sales figures I’ve seen, the phone has sold well over 1 billion units worldwide. Statista claims there are 2.2 million apps in the app store.

My own fascination with the “Jesus phone” (as it was called) started on launch day. I was one of those people who happened to obtain one from Apple on the day of release, then wrote about it that same week. I remember what things were like back then. The Palm Pre was still around; Nokia still dominated. Most models by companies like Samsung and BlackBerry were still big and bulky, running a proprietary interface. (The T-Mobile G1 running Android didn’t come out until 2009.)

Consumers are cutting out the middleman, and it’s looking more like the middleman is Walmart.

Online sales rose about 15% last year, according to the U.S. Commerce department. The total haul was around $400 billion, or 8% of all retail sales for the year.

Back when I worked in IT at a large consumer electronics retailer, we used to say that online sales were infinitesimal — the equivalent of one or two stores in an entire chain. That’s not true anymore. Amazon sales were around 27% of all retail sales, thanks in part to the free two-day and a bot called Alexa, which makes the entire process ultra smooth.

Consumers are cutting out the middleman, and it’s looking more like the middleman is Walmart.

Online sales rose about 15% last year, according to the U.S. Commerce department. The total haul was around $400 billion, or 8% of all retail sales for the year.

Back when I worked in IT at a large consumer electronics retailer, we used to say that online sales were infinitesimal — the equivalent of one or two stores in an entire chain. That’s not true anymore. Amazon sales were around 27% of all retail sales, thanks in part to the free two-day and a bot called Alexa, which makes the entire process ultra smooth.

I started using a Mac for the first time at a corporate job in the 1990s.

I still remember starting up Photoshop for the first time and being amazed at how much editing I could do on a color photo, and then doing some basic page layout in a long-forgotten app called Aldus PageMaker.

These were the days when there was still a sense of wonder about being able to load multiple apps at once, and even the classic mouse was still fairly new, at least in terms of doing professional graphic design work with some accuracy.

Recently, Apple announced they would be adding a few features to the iPad that, when I first heard about them, instantly wondered if this was going to be the end of the Mac for good. I know, processing power on mobile devices is still not quite there yet. You can’t quite fit a high-end NVIDIA card into an iPad. Yet, from a workflow standpoint, several features in iOS 11 stand out as noteworthy, but they are also a sign that the Mac might be heading for extinction.

I started using a Mac for the first time at a corporate job in the 90s.

I still remember starting up Photoshop for the first time and being amazed at how much editing I could do on a color photo, and then doing some basic page layout in a long-forgotten app called Aldus PageMaker.

These were the days when there was still a sense of wonder about being able to load multiple apps at once, and even the classic mouse was still fairly new, at least in terms of doing professional graphic design work with some accuracy.

Recently, Apple announced they would be adding a few features to the iPad that, when I first heard about them, instantly wondered if this was going to be the end of the Mac for good. I know, processing power on mobile devices is still not quite there yet. You can’t quite fit a high-end NVIDIA card into an iPad. Yet, from a workflow standpoint, several features in iOS 11 stand out as noteworthy, but they are also a sign that the Mac might be heading for extinction.

If you don’t live and breathe IT everyday, you may not realize what a headache it is to support the Mac. Some larger companies have figured out how to make it all work, and tools like those from JAMF certainly help. (You can buy a Mac from Apple these days and have it all configured for your company before you ever remove the shrink-wrap from the box.)

What’s still not working out?

There are still a lot of gotchas for users.

Recently, I’ve heard about end-users who have tried to use a Mac for a few simple, straightforward activities. One was related to Microsoft Teams. Even though Microsoft makes a client app for the Mac (and mobile platforms), there was a configuration problem related to Office 365 in the Chrome browser on a Mac. PC users had no trouble, but when Mac users tried to join a team, they hit a roadblock. It was a simple configuration on the back-end, but it was still frustrating and time-consuming.

I did a deep dive into the features in Microsoft Teams, which is essentially a collaborative chat application for Office users (a.k.a., a Slack competitor).

I wanted to find out what it’s like to use Teams with an actual team for actual work. Fortunately, I’ve started doing some work with a local college — I’m mostly there to help with mentoring and development. It’s a team of around 12 people, and I’ll have more findings to share in the coming weeks, but there’s one initial concern.

Since 2008, it’s been an ever-flowing channel of communication — direct and unfiltered. Celebrities, basketball stars, and even Presidents can post with reckless abandon.

We’ve been living in the age of unfiltered status updates for almost ten years now, but it makes me wonder if there is a better way to share thoughts spontaneously…but with a little more civility.

As a recent example, President Trump posted an off-hand remark about possibly ending press briefings and would, instead, hand out prepared statements only. The implication here is that reporters would not be able to ask questions in an open format or engage in dialog with White House reps. It would be more structured and controlled…and less democratic. Regardless of your political view, this is a strange tweet.